Getting the weekend off to an upbeat start.
In good news for the Monarch butterfly, a conservation group is planting more than 30,000 milkweed plants in California to give Western monarch butterflies new places to breed, after much of their habitat has been replaced by housing. The plants are seen as critical because the orange-and-black butterflies lay their eggs on them. Their caterpillars also eat them. This adds to the recent historic deal to protect millions of habitat acres for the Monarch Butterfly during their 3,000 mile migration to and from Mexico through the western United States and Canada.
Lockdown reading has helped the Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury to its third profit upgrade of the year after a 22 percent surge in annual pre-tax profits. The company said people had “rediscovered the joy of reading” during lockdown. The company said fantasy, escapism, social inclusion and cookery all sold well.
Breast cancer accounts for 44 percent of cancer diagnoses among women in the UK. CoppaFeel!’s free, online Self-Checkout service guides people through practices that can help them identify changes in their chests. Claire McDonald, a trustee at the charity, said: “The Self-Checkout will help us embed behaviours that will save lives now and in years to come.”
In a victory for environmentalists and the planet, the US Department of the Interior has announced plans to terminate Arctic refuge drilling rights. The nine canceled leases span more than 400,000 acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The suspension of the leases sold by Trump's administration is a great first step in protecting these regions and environmental advocates are optimistic that a comprehensive environmental analysis will yield a full invalidation of the lease.
Fashion fans and royal followers will be able to get a closeup look at the dress that Diana, Princess of Wales, wore on her wedding day in 1981. The gown, with its 25ft sequin-encrusted train that dramatically filled the aisle of St Paul’s Cathedral, will be on show for the first time at Kensington Palace in 25 years. Diana’s children, the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, have loaned the gown to the London exhibition, Royal Style in the Making, which opens to the public on 3 June.
In more good news in the battle to get Big Oil to take climate issues much, much more seriously, ExxonMobil now expects to lose a third board seat to an activist hedge fund, Engine No 1, adding to the pressure on one of the world’s largest oil companies to introduce a more effective climate transition plan. The Texas-based producer announced that lawyers counting shareholder votes had found a third director nomination was secured by Engine No 1, which successfully argued that Exxon had not done enough to prepare for the global shift from fossil fuels.
Act of kindness: Two days after Debby Strickland married Jim Merthe, Debby donated a kidney to James' ex-wife Mylaen Merthe. This good news story is a testament to how love and compassion can triumph over division. "It was the most amazing day of my life, until two days later. That was also the most amazing day of my life," Debby said.
Be sure to take a look tomorrow at OGN's Sunday Magazine...
Dive in Deeper
Passion for space: Seven year old is to be the first ever child to send something to the moon. [2 mins] Astro Liz...
Time to ban SUVs? Transport is an enormous contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and SUVs are one of the biggest culprits. [2 mins] End of the road...
Monarch butterflies
In the mountains of Mexico, camera ventures into the heart of a breathtaking monarch butterfly swarm. Few filmmakers have been able to capture the spectacle this closely.